Burka: A Way to Blind Public Opinion - L'Humanité in English

Burka: A Way to Blind Public Opinion - L'Humanité in English

I wrote a post about the subject of the French debate on banning the full face veil a while ago on my old blog, and I thought it would be useful to share this story to help differentiate between the right and left view of the issue. The opinion of Johnathan Roger, that "The wearing of the full facial veil, which symbolizes the submission and locking up of women, has to be fought. Unfortunately, in this affair it serves as a pretext for uniting the right – including the far right – at the price of lapsing into xenophobia.", is not the same as calling for "thought crime" laws as many who oppose the idea of banning any style of dress would say. Also on L'Humanité's english language website you can find an article about how religious leaders are reluctant to take a strong stand on either side of the issue. People who support the ban for any reason should realize that it is primarily an electoral strategy for the French right.

US has "third world" transportation system

Non-Left post

On February 2nd, California state senator Alan Lowenthal gave a speech at my campus as part of the Joseph P.Rizza lecture series, highlighting the gains made in reducing pollution from ports, giving us ideas as to the future of port systems (and the "short haul" transport that supports them), and criticizing the disadvantages California now faces compared to Canadian ports and the expanded Panama Canal and the "silo mentality" that causes them.  I'm sure the entire speech will be available on the internet eventually.

What struck me was that he said after cargo leaves our state of the art ports, it basically enters a third world transportation system.  Our rail infrastructure around terminals is so bad that its cheaper to send a ship from China through the Panama canal to the gulf coast (and then on to destinations in the South or Midwest) than it is to unload it in California and send it cross country.  This means that as shipping traffic is sent through the canal, money that could create transportation jobs on the west coast goes into canal fees and the sky as ultra-polluting fuel oil.

He later told me in person that our infrastructure around ports is and issue of nation-wide concern and the US Department of Transportation is not doing enough.  The responsibility for improving national transportation infrastructure should go to the federal government, but they don't seem to be doing anything.  Ray Lahood, current Transportation Secretary, was probably selected to add a republican to the cabinet and not for bold leadership.  It should go without saying that efficient, cost effective movement of goods is a key part of the national economy and should have national attention.

Stop Militarized Afghan Aid: NGOs - IslamOnline.net - News

Stop Militarized Afghan Aid: NGOs - IslamOnline.net - News

Debunking the myth that the military action in Afghanistan helps the Afghans.

MUNI budget cuts? WTF!?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/29/MN0Q1BP8E6.DTL
The San Francisco MTA is talking about cutting 10% of service on the nations most crowded public transportation system. This will only cause fewer people to pay the fare because buses are already too crowded for people to enter through the front door. Then again, most people in San Francisco don't want to drive to work, so maybe the MTA just expects them all to suffer.

mltoday.com -History of a Hatian Holocaust

mltoday.com

Howard Zinn, author of 'People's History' and left-wing historian, dies at 87 in California - latimes.com

Howard Zinn, author of 'People's History' and left-wing historian, dies at 87 in California - latimes.com

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A call to mobilize from Rich Trumka

Charity Navigator: Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation

Charity Navigator: Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation

What strikes me as odd about the appeal for emergency aid to Haiti is that so much of it will probably go to rebuilding the structures that the NGOs were using to deliver aid before the earthquake rather than being delivered directly to victims. In a developed country a victim would go to get aid in a community owned building like a school or church. As we all give money to NGOs for the relief effort in Haiti, we know that almost anything permanent they build will probably be owned, a the very top at least, by foreigners. The cycle of poverty and disaster will simply continue to repeat itself until Haiti can liberate herself from corruption caused by US intervention in her politics.

Maybe Jean's foundation will be better than Partners In Health, American Red Cross, and the other US NGOs because he won't build any "permanent bases" and will focus on getting directly to Haitians. I personally split my donation between PIH, which runs most of the hospitals still standing in Haiti, and Islamic Relief USA, which put a team on the ground shortly after the earthquake and is laying plans for distributing aid that is on its way, and putting mobile water trailers in neighborhoods.

Back to Yele Haiti, donating be text message isn't a very good idea in an emergency since the group doesn't get the money until you pay your phone bill. It would work for an organization that has tons of money already, like the Red Cross (text haiti to 90999), but not Yele Haiti, which is broke until everyone pays their January cell phone bills.

PAME calls for new strike on February 10th

On Saturday January 9, 2010 PAME held an enlarged meeting of the Pan-Hellenic Coordination Committee with the participation of 300 trade unionists from all over the country as well as from main sectors of production. After the meeting PAME called the people to escalate their struggle against the sweeping attack of the “socialist” PASOK government which is also supported by the liberal opposition of ND.

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MLK and his legacy

In honor of MLK day.